The definitive source for information on collecting screen-used Star Trek props and costumes

Star Trek Props.com The Internet's premier source for information on collecting Star Trek props and costumes, as well as coverage of all major Star Trek auctions from the famous 2006 Christie's Star Trek auction, through the It's A Wrap Star Trek auctions on eBay and the Propworx Star Trek auctions. Star Trek Props is the best source for information of collecting original, screen-used props & costumes.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

It's a Wrap eBay auctions - Week 34 Results

Week 34 Results

Week 3 of my summer road trip took me to Las Vegas for the Creation Star Trek Convention. It was a blast and we all got to share in the fun of watching the auctions end on whatever wireless device we could find! My apologies for no Week 34 preview, but the last three weeks have been very busy and exhausting! I am home now for the foreseeable future and hope to knock out a bunch of blog posts the next few weeks. Today is the Week 34 Review, tomorrow AM I will have up a Week 35 Preview and then this weekend I will have lots on the Vegas con, including a hell of a lot of photos.

So, on to this week....

The Garak costume went for an unreal $ 7,700. Is this a real bid? Is this person insane? This is hands down the worst buy of the week. Now this bidder had 0 feedback and because someone on the Star Trek Prop Forum actually said they would bid up to $ 10,000, this might be a spoof bid. (never tell anyone how high you are willing to go, especially if you are willing to spend stupid money to get something).

OK, the White Radiological Suit at $ 3,451 was equally insane. Yes, this looks like one of the Assassin's costume from Star Trek VI, but still, that is VERY high. Oh My!

I don't know what the hell these people are thinking. They must REALLY like these costumes, because they will never recoup these prices.

The Feature Style Officer's Uniform is the latest Maroon we have seen. At $ 3,150 it isn't high, but it isn't a particularly good deal either. No belt and no rank pins. Of course people love these, but we have seen named character's maroons going for $ 3,000.

The Nemesis Dr. Crusher Starfleet Uniform went for a reasonable $ 2,550. This was a beautiful example and with pips and a comm badge a good deal I think. It looks great and will display well.The Voyager Complete Starfleet Uniform went for $ 2,325. It reached this price because it came with Lt. rank pips and a comm badge. Now typically, this would have gone for $ 800. That means the boots, pips and comm badge were worth an extra $ 1,525 to this bidder. That is a bit high I think, but not totally unreasonable. Why IAW didn't put those items with a Tom Paris costume I don't know. It did sell this rather mundane costume though.

The TNG/DS9 Worf Starfleet Uniform lot went for a very reasonable $ 2,125 and gets my best buy of the week. This is the rarer two piece style black and gray, and this one comes with extra components. This was a first time bidder on these auctions. She also won....

The distressed Hoshi Sato jumpsuit went a bit high for a distressed costume of this type. It did come with a rank pip though. Probably the buyer's inexperience pushed it up this high. Give her a few months and she will get the hang of it!

Another new bidder, costumehunter99, bought two black and gray Nemesis style costumes. The first, a red command, went for a rich $ 1,935. (These were selling for $ 800 at Vegas, and typically go around $ 1,200). The second, an ops gold, went for $ 1,825. The last one of those went for $ 1,225 in week 21.

The Harry Kim costume went for $ 1,700, which is on the high side of the $ 1,300-,1,700 range these have been going on, but still a great deal. A main character under $ 2,000? Very cool indeed.

The Commander Kelby went for $ 1,514 which I think was fair as it was an important character in those Season 4 episodes. The uniform also comes with rank pips.

Finally, the Terran Empire costume at $ 1,325 was about right where these have been going for. I love these costumes and highly recommend them.

As far as props go:

The USS Enterprise D gold model went for a healthy $ 3,150. Of course, placing these models in the Ready Room scene in First Contact is tough. A bunch of these were made. Some broken and some not. For a model you can't screen match, I think this is high. The LCARS panel with shuttle graphic went for a rather rich $ 2,227. These tend to go high when there is a good graphic on them. And this one was nice.The NX-01 Carry Bag at $ 2,025 is a candidate for Worst Buy of the week. I mean it is a freaking BAG! UGH. Oh well.

Now, the Prop of the Week is something I actually won. The Borg Neural Processor and Phase Modulator are two AWESOME props. These are both key props in Star Trek: First Contact. The Borg Neural Processor is what Picard pulls out of the chest of the dead Borg in the holodeck scene and then plugs into his Tricorder. The Phase Modulator is what Picard is working on when Lilly barges in on him in his ready room (what a great scene!).

Now, these may well not have been screen used, as my buddy Brett said he handled another set of these from the head of HMS props shop. But I am not big on Screen Used vs. Production Made. If they made two and just picked one to use in the scene, does it give some additional intrinsic value to a prop? I don't think so (though many differ on that).

1 comment:

"I don't know what the hell these people are thinking. They must REALLY like these costumes, because they will never recoup these prices."

I think you are looking at this from a investor/collector point of view. I would assume the 2 bidders were looking at it in a collector point of view.

A collector does not really care if they overpay for a item by a few thousand (or whatever amount) as long as they own it. Even if someone decided to sell at a later date and lost a few thousand (or whatever amount) then that was the cost of ownership.